ignorant in the eyes of the younger generation.
Jin Shuai sighed ostentatiously and tapped the table with her varnished fingernails. ‘Oh, poor Xinran. You haven’t even got the various categories of women straight. How can you possibly hope to understand men? Let me tell you. When men have been drinking, they come out with a set of definitions for women. Lovers are “swordfish”, tasty but with sharp bones. “Personal secretaries” are “carp”, the longer you “stew” them, the more flavour they have. Other men’s wives are “Japanese puffer fish”, trying a mouthful could be the end of you, but risking death is a source of pride.’
‘And what about their own wives?’
‘Salt cod.’
‘Salt cod? Why?’
‘Because salt cod keeps for a long time. When there is no other food, salt cod is cheap and convenient, and makes a meal with rice . . . All right, I’ve got to go to “work”. You shouldn’t have listened to me rabbiting on for so long. Why didn’t you say anything?’
I was silent, preoccupied by the startling comparison of wives with salt cod.
‘Don’t forget to answer my three questions on your programme: What philosophy do women have? What is happiness for a woman? And what makes a good woman?’
Jin Shuai finished her tea, picked up her handbag and was gone.
I pondered Jin Shuai’s questions for a long time, but I realised that I didn’t know the answers. There seemed such a huge gap between her generation and mine. In the course of the next few years, I had the opportunity to meet many more university students. The temperaments, attitudes and lifestyles of the new generation of Chinese women who had grown up during the period of ‘Reform and Opening Up’ were entirely different from those of their parents. But although they had colourful theories on life, there was a deep layer of emptiness behind their thoughts.
Could they be blamed for this? I did not think so. There had been something missing from their upbringing that had made them like this. They had never had a normal, loving environment in which to grow up.
From the matriarchal societies in the far distant past, the position of Chinese women has always been at the lowest level. They were classed as objects, as a part of property, shared out along with food, tools and weapons. Later on, they were permitted to enter the men’s world, but they could only exist at their feet – entirely reliant on the goodness or wickedness of a man. If you study Chinese architecture, you can see that many long years passed before a small minority of women could move from the side chambers of the family courtyard (where tools were kept and the servants slept) to chambers beside the main rooms (where the master of the house and his sons lived).
Chinese history is very long, but it has been a very short time since women have had the opportunity to become themselves and since men have started to get to know them.
In the 1930s, when Western women were already demanding sexual equality, Chinese women were only just starting to challenge male-dominated society, no longer willing for their feet to be bound, or to have their marriages arranged for them by the older generation. However, they did not know what women’s responsibilities and rights were; they did not know how to win for themselves a world of their own. They searched ignorantly for answers in their own narrow space, and in a country where all education was prescribed by the Party. The effect that this has had on the younger generation is worrying. In order to survive in a harsh world, many young people have adopted the hardened carapace of Jin Shuai and suppressed their emotions.
4
The Scavenger Woman
By the wall of the radio station, not far from the security guards, there was a row of small shacks pieced together from scrap metal, roofing felt and plastic bags. The women who lived here supported themselves by collecting rubbish and then selling it. I often wondered where
Jin Shuai sighed ostentatiously and tapped the table with her varnished fingernails. ‘Oh, poor Xinran. You haven’t even got the various categories of women straight. How can you possibly hope to understand men? Let me tell you. When men have been drinking, they come out with a set of definitions for women. Lovers are “swordfish”, tasty but with sharp bones. “Personal secretaries” are “carp”, the longer you “stew” them, the more flavour they have. Other men’s wives are “Japanese puffer fish”, trying a mouthful could be the end of you, but risking death is a source of pride.’
‘And what about their own wives?’
‘Salt cod.’
‘Salt cod? Why?’
‘Because salt cod keeps for a long time. When there is no other food, salt cod is cheap and convenient, and makes a meal with rice . . . All right, I’ve got to go to “work”. You shouldn’t have listened to me rabbiting on for so long. Why didn’t you say anything?’
I was silent, preoccupied by the startling comparison of wives with salt cod.
‘Don’t forget to answer my three questions on your programme: What philosophy do women have? What is happiness for a woman? And what makes a good woman?’
Jin Shuai finished her tea, picked up her handbag and was gone.
I pondered Jin Shuai’s questions for a long time, but I realised that I didn’t know the answers. There seemed such a huge gap between her generation and mine. In the course of the next few years, I had the opportunity to meet many more university students. The temperaments, attitudes and lifestyles of the new generation of Chinese women who had grown up during the period of ‘Reform and Opening Up’ were entirely different from those of their parents. But although they had colourful theories on life, there was a deep layer of emptiness behind their thoughts.
Could they be blamed for this? I did not think so. There had been something missing from their upbringing that had made them like this. They had never had a normal, loving environment in which to grow up.
From the matriarchal societies in the far distant past, the position of Chinese women has always been at the lowest level. They were classed as objects, as a part of property, shared out along with food, tools and weapons. Later on, they were permitted to enter the men’s world, but they could only exist at their feet – entirely reliant on the goodness or wickedness of a man. If you study Chinese architecture, you can see that many long years passed before a small minority of women could move from the side chambers of the family courtyard (where tools were kept and the servants slept) to chambers beside the main rooms (where the master of the house and his sons lived).
Chinese history is very long, but it has been a very short time since women have had the opportunity to become themselves and since men have started to get to know them.
In the 1930s, when Western women were already demanding sexual equality, Chinese women were only just starting to challenge male-dominated society, no longer willing for their feet to be bound, or to have their marriages arranged for them by the older generation. However, they did not know what women’s responsibilities and rights were; they did not know how to win for themselves a world of their own. They searched ignorantly for answers in their own narrow space, and in a country where all education was prescribed by the Party. The effect that this has had on the younger generation is worrying. In order to survive in a harsh world, many young people have adopted the hardened carapace of Jin Shuai and suppressed their emotions.
4
The Scavenger Woman
By the wall of the radio station, not far from the security guards, there was a row of small shacks pieced together from scrap metal, roofing felt and plastic bags. The women who lived here supported themselves by collecting rubbish and then selling it. I often wondered where
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